After almost three years after the 2020 Presidential Elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika has finally conceded defeat accepting that he indeed lost the polls fair and square at the hands of Tonse Alliance.
Mutharika has been leaving in denial since the June 23, 2020 polls and has relentlessly refused to accept the reality that he was removed from power because of his incompetence, his party’s bloody methods of clinging to power and poor leadership.
Instead, he has been preaching that he did not lose the poll, claiming he was robbed of victory by Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and its partners led by the incumbent President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera rigged the votes.
Addressing the DPP supporters during a fundraising dinner in Blantyre and wearing a brave face, APM confessed that his party did not and could not win the 2020 presidential race.
His narrative contradicts with the one held by his own senior party officials. According to senior DPP officials, the party lost because of Muthairka’s dictatorial tendency and lack of leadership in him.
Speaking Saturday night during the fundraising dinner, Mutharika criticized those who blame him for the party’s defeat, stating that “such people are stupid because they do not know what I went through before I became president in 2014”.
“You have no idea what you are talking about. So, stop blaming me for the loss in the 2020 elections, especially you the young people,” said a highly charged Mutharika.
He claimed that after the 2019 elections, which his party rigged, he had no idea that there would be another election within a year, and that the party was not adequately prepared for the 2020 elections.
APM predicted doom for his party, saying ‘if you elect a person who has no substance, forget about returning to power’.
“People in Malawi are no longer stupid,” he acknowledged.
While commending Mutharika for admitting the loss though too late, social media commentators have advised DPP to apologize to Malawians for the atrocities and criminal activities citizens experienced when the party was in power.
They cited the brutal murder of university student Robert Chasowa, the hunting and killing of persons with albinism, brutal murder of Issa Njaunju, among others.
“As Mutharika has rightly pointed out, Malawians are no longer stupid. We cannot vote DPP back into power because it is an oppressive party,” said Mayeso Banda on his Facebook page.
Others wondered why DPP is appealing for financial support when the party has been bragging that it has the largest property and wealth.
“Kodi zomwe munaba zija mwamaliza kale kudya?” reacted Malawians to Shadric Namalomba’s appeal for assistance on his Facebook page.